Texaco service station
The Texaco service station in Courthouse Square supplied a variety of fuels for automobiles in the 20th and early 21st centuries. 1885 From January to early September 1885, in the timeline in which he was a resident, Emmett Brown's livery stable and blacksmith's workshop stood on the site that the service station would later occupy. Where automobiles would someday be repaired, Doc's services included shoeing horses and fixing wagons, at a time when horses were the most common form of transportation, other than walking. It was on this site here that Doc told Marty, "There’s not going to be a gas station around here until some time in the next century." 1955 In 1955, Texaco was a full-service gas station with attendants that washed the car windows and filled up the tank. A red tow truck that Terry used to tow Biff Tannen's Ford Super De Luxe Convertible was usually parked outside, and a soda vending machine with bottles of Pepsi was on the outside wall of Roy's Records next door. A red Texaco tanker truck was also seen to be present. *The price for gas on the Texaco sign in 1955 was stated as: .19 9/10¢ 1985 By 1985, the station was self-service with a convenience store and customers filling up their own cars; then going inside to pay. It was here that Marty first saw the Toyota 4x4 truck that he wanted, which was on a flatbed tow truck pulling in front of the gas station. *The prices on the Texaco sign in 1985 were stated as: Regular $1.09 9/10, Unleaded $1.19 9/10, and Super Unleaded $1.31 9/10. 2015 2015 brought a new level of automation to the station with robot arms filling the tank with Havoline and checking the landing gear on the upper level for hover-converted cars, and a 7-Eleven store below it. The station offered Compu-Serve as a payment option. *The prices on the Texaco sign in 2015 were stated as: Fusion Gold $6.95 9/10, Super Fusion Plus+ $7.62 9/10, Liquid Hydrogen $8.10 9/10, Regular Unleaded $8.37 9/10, and Super Unleaded Plus+ $8.99 9/10. *Other services offered by the station — shown on one of the noticeboards — were mag-lev adjustments, aero-dynamic kits and certified retro-fitting services. Behind the scenes *Originally, the script called for only one service station attendant when Marty entered downtown for the first time in 1955. Robert Zemeckis thought of a joke while on the set,BTTF audio commentary by Bob Gale and Neil Canton. and asked his crew to find three more uniforms, so they would resemble the four singing Texaco attendants that would introduce Milton Berle at the beginning of the Texaco Star Theater television show.See the "Men of Texaco" video at National Public RadioTexaco Star Theater *The scene was also a comment about how daily life had changed between 1955 and 1985. Before "self service" gas pumps became popular, it was not uncommon for a service station attendant to clean the windshield, check the oil and transmission fluid levels, put air in the tires, and to do other services while filling the tank. *By 1985, even a "full service" station offered little more than an attendant pumping gas; as Marty skated past the Texaco station on his way to school, an elderly woman could be seen filling her gas tank while an employee looked on. *By 2015, it was envisioned that machines would do what full service attendants had once done. A computerized voice could be heard saying "Checking oil. Checking landing gear." Texaco's 1962 slogan, "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star", had been updated to "You can trust your car to the system with the star." Actuality (2015) * Automated service stations like that seen in Back to the Future Part II have yet to be invented. At the moment, customers still have to fill up their vehicles manually, but a facility which gives them the option to either pay at the adjoining kiosk/convenience store or at the gas pump using a credit or debit card — the latter being useful for people who are in a hurry — is already in use at some service stations. Appearances *''Back to the Future'' *''Back to the Future Part II'' *''Back to the Future: The Ride'' See also * References Category:Locations in Courthouse Square Category:Companies Category:1955 Category:1985 Category:2015